->"''Yeah, like what you really need to do when watching [[LargeHam Chris Matthews]] is get ''closer'' to the television!''"-->-- '''[[Series/TheDailyShow Jon Stewart]]'''

American [[TwentyFourHourNewsNetworks 24-hour news network]] that was launched in 1996 as a joint venture between Creator/{{NBC}} and Microsoft. Its name was a portmanteau of MSN (Microsoft Network) and NBC. MSNBC was the revamp of a channel called "America's Talking", which went on the air in 1994 and was mostly focused on {{talk show}}s. It was, clearly, not a success, and the only show from that era to survive to the present day is ''Politics with Chris Matthews'' (now known as ''Hardball with Chris Matthews'', a name it gained after a ChannelHop to CNBC shortly after the shutdown of America's Talking). The big impact of the cancellation of AT was that Roger Ailes ran that channel; he quickly moved to become the head of FoxNewsChannel, which naturally is MSNBC's ArchEnemy.

MSNBC was intended by its creators to bring a unique syncronicity between online and cable news, mostly by putting viewer emails on the air. It was a pretty novel idea... in 1996. But once the other two big networks jumped online, MSNBC's high-tech gimmick began to look redundant. The network would spend nearly a decade floundering in last place (in spite of the strength of NBC News behind it), desperately trying to ape the success that the FoxNewsChannel was having with opinion-driven pundit shows, while having ratings more comparable to those of Creator/{{CNN}} Headline News than with the [[Creator/{{CNN}} big players]] [[FoxNewsChannel of cable news]]. Meanwhile, PrimeTime was increasingly being [[NetworkDecay filled with true crime and prison "documentaries"]]. In 2005, Microsoft sold 32% of MSNBC to NBC Universal, retaining only 18% (the website, which is actually a separate unit from the TV network, remained a 50/50 partnership until 2012), and later dropping out completely, giving NBCU 100%.

In the later years of the GeorgeWBush administration, however, the network took the popularity of ''CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'' and the April 2007 departure of Don Imus as the chance to try a new strategy. It moved its [[FoxNewsLiberal token conservative]] Joe Scarborough from the prime-time lineup to Imus's old time slot, and the network's weekday prime-time ended up sliding towards the left and was called "the liberal Fox News" by people who tried to defend Fox News [[InsultBackfire by admitting that while FNC was a right-wing propaganda channel, MSNBC was the same to the left]]. It doesn't help that over the years most conservatives on the channel were fired and were picked up by Fox News. But finally, in October 2010, the network adopted a new catchphrase "Lean Forward", which signaled to many analysts that it had dropped all pretense and become essentially "the liberal Fox News". [[BerserkButton Just don't tell them that.]]

''Due to heated political opinions on the nature of MSNBC and the heated opinions of what people think of them; please be [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment very careful]] when adding examples. Do not use this page simply to gush about, bash or rant about MSNBC, this is not the place to do it.''----!!This network contains examples of:* TheArtifact: Those true crime and prison documentaries? Alive and well and dominating the weekend schedule, with only a few hours of live news in the late morning/early afternoon and a Sunday evening rebroadcast of that morning's ''MeetThePress'' to serious things up.** The true crime and prison documentaries also get ran in marathons on holidays such as Thanksgiving. It would appear that the documentaries are MSNBC's way of letting their employees not work on weekends or holidays.* BlatantLies: MSNBC has been repeatedly caught "creatively editing" footage to tell stories that the unedited footage completely debunks. The most infamous example is when they took footage of a black man with an (unloaded) assault rifle advocating in favor of gun rights at a Tea Party rally and meticulously edited out every hint of the man's true ethnicity. They then used the edited footage to warn the public of the dangers of angry white armed racists pervading the Tea Party.* BRollRebus: During their rolling news coverage during the day (when the average viewer is out-and-about).* {{Catchphrase}}: A good number of them on different shows.** "''Now'' will start in 180 seconds." - Alex Wagner from ''Now With Alex Wagner''** "Nice try, but we caught ya!" - Al Sharpton from ''[=PoliticsNation=]''** "Let's play Hardball!" - Chris Matthews from ''Hardball with Chris Matthews''** "This is ''The Ed Show''. Let's get to work!" - Ed Schultz from ''The Ed Show''** "In the Rewrite tonight..." - Lawrence O'Donnell from ''The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell''* DeadpanSnarker: All the hosts have their moments, but Martin Bashir is the king of snark at MSNBC.* DistaffCounterpart: Rachel Maddow was intended to be this to Keith Olbermann, whose show had been in the hour prior to hers.* EverythingIsRacist: At the very least, MSNBC is a bit too eager to blame opposition to Obama on racism. Watch and be amazed at how many different ways there are to say what amounts to, "conservatives don't like Obama because he's black".* ExecutiveMeddling: The reason Creator/CenkUygur left the network.* FoxNewsLiberal: Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan, MSNBC's token conservatives. Interestingly, the channels' former token conservative, Tucker Carlson, eventually wound up joining FoxNews. [[OlderThanTheyThink Apparently, he wasn't the first.]]** Scarborough is arguably a much better example, seeing as how he routinely criticizes some of the most prominent right-wingers (Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, most members of the more conservative wing of the party, et. al), but he didn't endorse Obama for President, at least. Scratch that, he could be seen as MSNBC's version of Alan Colmes in a lot of ways, and Scarborough attacks Republicans more frequently and often more angrily than Colmes attacks Democrats. Buchanan, meanwhile, is a bit strange. On one hand, he is unquestionably right-wing on social issues, leading many to believe that MSNBC keeps him around in the hope that he'll say something embarrassing and make conservatives look bad (if so, they may have gotten their wish at least a couple of times). On the other hand, as a paleoconservative, he is opposed to TheWarOnTerror and similar foreign policy entanglements, and he favors protectionism over the free trade supported by the GOP mainstream -- both positions supported by many on the left (albeit for different reasons).** Throughout their run, they have hosted shows by ultra-conservatives MichaelSavage and Alan Keyes.** Buchanan has appeared on so many different MSNBC opinion shows, often in the course of a single day, that [[WildMassGuessing people have wondered aloud]] if he has a bed in 30 Rock.** The latest addition to the team of MSNBC Conservatives is S.E. Cupp, co-host of ''The Cycle'', the closest MSNBC has to a BlondeRepublicanSexKitten (she's [[FieryRedhead a redhead]]).* HeelFaceTurn[=/=]FaceHeelTurn: Depends on who you ask. Back in the day, MSNBC tried to imitate Fox News Channel directly by also being a conservative network, giving prime-time slots to the likes of Pat Buchanan, Tucker Carlson and Joe Scarborough. When this failed miserably (and after the repackaged-''Series/{{Dateline}}''-in-weekday-PrimeTime era), they went in the opposite direction, finding success as the polar opposite of Fox News, to the point where [[http://www.redstate.com/athensrunaway/tag/msnbc/ pundits]] began to call it the [[FunWithAcronyms Most Socialist Network on Basic Cable]].** Scarborough the [[FoxNewsLiberal MSNBC Conservative]] still holds down the morning slot.* KarmaHoudini: Whatever happened about the story of [[http://www.americanpolitics.com/20010808Klausutis.html the disappearance of Joe Scarborough's intern in 2001]], about the same time as the Gary Condit story? [[RetGone It seems that nobody even bothers mentioning it anymore]]. Not to say he's necessarily guilty unless something pops up, but isn't it strange how it wasn't even investigated for very long? Where were you, Nancy Grace?** Lori Klausutis, the Scarborough office worker, was also the victim of bad timing. After 9/11, we pretty much stopped caring about anything else for quite a while. The media was busy covering the attacks, The Justice Department was busy investigating them, and the rest of law enforcement was busy trying to prevent another one. After the attacks, a lot of media personalities could be heard using some variation of "Can you believe how obsessed we were with something as trivial as Gary Condit?"* MeaningfulName: Krystal Ball, political pundit.** Hilariously, ''that's her real name.'' Apparently, her parents had an odd sense of humor.* ProductPlacement: ''Morning Joe'', "brewed by Starbucks" since June 1, 2009.** ''Series/TheDailyShow'' [[http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-3-2009/corporate-synerjoe made fun of this]], starting a brief but [[http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-10-2009/jon-s-napoleonic-complex very silly]] feud.* TheRival: FoxNewsChannel.* ScrewedByTheNetwork: For a news channel, MSNBC is actually quite notorious for this:** In 2003, when MSNBC was still trying to emulate the conservative Fox News and had yet to brand itself as a progressive network, it fired Phil Donahue for his opposition to the imminent Iraq War despite his high ratings. A leaked internal MSNBC memo basically confirmed that they axed Donahue because he was a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war."** Then several years later, they abruptly cancelled ''Series/CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'' – again, a highly-rated show – over an internal conflict with Keith Olbermann, who some bosses felt had gone a little too left-wing for the network.** Creator/CenkUygur of ''Radio/TheYoungTurks'' hosted his own newshour on MSNBC for a brief time, but voluntarily left after network bosses told him to avoid criticizing the Obama Administration.* ThoseTwoGuys: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf2s_lq5Xm4 Martin Bashir and Dylan Ratigan]].* TheUnpronounceable: Joe Scarborough's co-host Mika Brzezinski. At least the first name is easier, unlike her father Zbigniew...* WhatTheHellHero:** A frequent response to the firing of Keith Olbermann, who was host of their top-rated show.** Also a frequent response to the WhamLine ("We are the establishment") given to Creator/CenkUygur in July 2011.** And now more recently when they explicitly compared Mitt Romney's campaign slogan (Keep America American) to the Ku Klux Klan, although they did apologize for that one.----

->"''Yeah, like what you really need to do when watching [[LargeHam Chris Matthews]] is get ''closer'' to the television!''"-->-- '''[[Series/TheDailyShow Jon Stewart]]'''

American [[TwentyFourHourNewsNetworks 24-hour news network]] that was launched in 1996 as a joint venture between Creator/{{NBC}} and Microsoft. Its name was a portmanteau of MSN (Microsoft Network) and NBC. MSNBC was the revamp of a channel called "America's Talking", which went on the air in 1994 and was mostly focused on {{talk show}}s. It was, clearly, not a success, and the only show from that era to survive to the present day is ''Politics with Chris Matthews'' (now known as ''Hardball with Chris Matthews'', a name it gained after a ChannelHop to CNBC shortly after the shutdown of America's Talking). The big impact of the cancellation of AT was that Roger Ailes ran that channel; he quickly moved to become the head of FoxNewsChannel, which naturally is MSNBC's ArchEnemy.

MSNBC was intended by its creators to bring a unique syncronicity between online and cable news, mostly by putting viewer emails on the air. It was a pretty novel idea... in 1996. But once the other two big networks jumped online, MSNBC's high-tech gimmick began to look redundant. The network would spend nearly a decade floundering in last place (in spite of the strength of NBC News behind it), desperately trying to ape the success that the FoxNewsChannel was having with opinion-driven pundit shows, while having ratings more comparable to those of Creator/{{CNN}} Headline News than with the [[Creator/{{CNN}} big players]] [[FoxNewsChannel of cable news]]. Meanwhile, PrimeTime was increasingly being [[NetworkDecay filled with true crime and prison "documentaries"]]. In 2005, Microsoft sold 32% of MSNBC to NBC Universal, retaining only 18% (the website, which is actually a separate unit from the TV network, remained a 50/50 partnership until 2012), and later dropping out completely, giving NBCU 100%.

In the later years of the GeorgeWBush administration, however, the network took the popularity of ''CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'' and the April 2007 departure of Don Imus as the chance to try a new strategy. It moved its [[FoxNewsLiberal token conservative]] Joe Scarborough from the prime-time lineup to Imus's old time slot, and the network's weekday prime-time ended up sliding towards the left and was called "the liberal Fox News" by people who tried to defend Fox News [[InsultBackfire by admitting that while FNC was a right-wing propaganda channel, MSNBC was the same to the left]]. It doesn't help that over the years most conservatives on the channel were fired and were picked up by Fox News. But finally, in October 2010, the network adopted a new catchphrase "Lean Forward", which signaled to many analysts that it had dropped all pretense and become essentially "the liberal Fox News". [[BerserkButton Just don't tell them that.]]

''Due to heated political opinions on the nature of MSNBC and the heated opinions of what people think of them; please be [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment very careful]] when adding examples. Do not use this page simply to gush about, bash or rant about MSNBC, this is not the place to do it.''----!!This network contains examples of:* TheArtifact: Those true crime and prison documentaries? Alive and well and dominating the weekend schedule, with only a few hours of live news in the late morning/early afternoon and a Sunday evening rebroadcast of that morning's ''MeetThePress'' to serious things up.** The true crime and prison documentaries also get ran in marathons on holidays such as Thanksgiving. It would appear that the documentaries are MSNBC's way of letting their employees not work on weekends or holidays.* BlatantLies: MSNBC has been repeatedly caught "creatively editing" footage to tell stories that the unedited footage completely debunks. The most infamous example is when they took footage of a black man with an (unloaded) assault rifle advocating in favor of gun rights at a Tea Party rally and meticulously edited out every hint of the man's true ethnicity. They then used the edited footage to warn the public of the dangers of angry white armed racists pervading the Tea Party.* BRollRebus: During their rolling news coverage during the day (when the average viewer is out-and-about).* {{Catchphrase}}: A good number of them on different shows.** "''Now'' will start in 180 seconds." - Alex Wagner from ''Now With Alex Wagner''** "Nice try, but we caught ya!" - Al Sharpton from ''[=PoliticsNation=]''** "Let's play Hardball!" - Chris Matthews from ''Hardball with Chris Matthews''** "This is ''The Ed Show''. Let's get to work!" - Ed Schultz from ''The Ed Show''** "In the Rewrite tonight..." - Lawrence O'Donnell from ''The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell''* DeadpanSnarker: All the hosts have their moments, but Martin Bashir is the king of snark at MSNBC.* DistaffCounterpart: Rachel Maddow was intended to be this to Keith Olbermann, whose show had been in the hour prior to hers.* EverythingIsRacist: At the very least, MSNBC is a bit too eager to blame opposition to Obama on racism. Watch and be amazed at how many different ways there are to say what amounts to, "conservatives don't like Obama because he's black".* ExecutiveMeddling: The reason Creator/CenkUygur left the network.* FoxNewsLiberal: Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan, MSNBC's token conservatives. Interestingly, the channels' former token conservative, Tucker Carlson, eventually wound up joining FoxNews. [[OlderThanTheyThink Apparently, he wasn't the first.]]** Scarborough is arguably a much better example, seeing as how he routinely criticizes some of the most prominent right-wingers (Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, most members of the more conservative wing of the party, et. al), but he didn't endorse Obama for President, at least. Scratch that, he could be seen as MSNBC's version of Alan Colmes in a lot of ways, and Scarborough attacks Republicans more frequently and often more angrily than Colmes attacks Democrats. Buchanan, meanwhile, is a bit strange. On one hand, he is unquestionably right-wing on social issues, leading many to believe that MSNBC keeps him around in the hope that he'll say something embarrassing and make conservatives look bad (if so, they may have gotten their wish at least a couple of times). On the other hand, as a paleoconservative, he is opposed to TheWarOnTerror and similar foreign policy entanglements, and he favors protectionism over the free trade supported by the GOP mainstream -- both positions supported by many on the left (albeit for different reasons).** Throughout their run, they have hosted shows by ultra-conservatives MichaelSavage and Alan Keyes.** Buchanan has appeared on so many different MSNBC opinion shows, often in the course of a single day, that [[WildMassGuessing people have wondered aloud]] if he has a bed in 30 Rock.** The latest addition to the team of MSNBC Conservatives is S.E. Cupp, co-host of ''The Cycle'', the closest MSNBC has to a BlondeRepublicanSexKitten (she's [[FieryRedhead a redhead]]).* HeelFaceTurn[=/=]FaceHeelTurn: Depends on who you ask. Back in the day, MSNBC tried to imitate Fox News Channel directly by also being a conservative network, giving prime-time slots to the likes of Pat Buchanan, Tucker Carlson and Joe Scarborough. When this failed miserably (and after the repackaged-''Series/{{Dateline}}''-in-weekday-PrimeTime era), they went in the opposite direction, finding success as the polar opposite of Fox News, to the point where [[http://www.redstate.com/athensrunaway/tag/msnbc/ pundits]] began to call it the [[FunWithAcronyms Most Socialist Network on Basic Cable]].** Scarborough the [[FoxNewsLiberal MSNBC Conservative]] still holds down the morning slot.* KarmaHoudini: Whatever happened about the story of [[http://www.americanpolitics.com/20010808Klausutis.html the disappearance of Joe Scarborough's intern in 2001]], about the same time as the Gary Condit story? [[RetGone It seems that nobody even bothers mentioning it anymore]]. Not to say he's necessarily guilty unless something pops up, but isn't it strange how it wasn't even investigated for very long? Where were you, Nancy Grace?** Lori Klausutis, the Scarborough office worker, was also the victim of bad timing. After 9/11, we pretty much stopped caring about anything else for quite a while. The media was busy covering the attacks, The Justice Department was busy investigating them, and the rest of law enforcement was busy trying to prevent another one. After the attacks, a lot of media personalities could be heard using some variation of "Can you believe how obsessed we were with something as trivial as Gary Condit?"* MeaningfulName: Krystal Ball, political pundit.** Hilariously, ''that's her real name.'' Apparently, her parents had an odd sense of humor.* ProductPlacement: ''Morning Joe'', "brewed by Starbucks" since June 1, 2009.** ''Series/TheDailyShow'' [[http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-3-2009/corporate-synerjoe made fun of this]], starting a brief but [[http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-10-2009/jon-s-napoleonic-complex very silly]] feud.* TheRival: FoxNewsChannel.* ScrewedByTheNetwork: For a news channel, MSNBC is actually quite notorious for this:** In 2003, when MSNBC was still trying to emulate the conservative Fox News and had yet to brand itself as a progressive network, it fired Phil Donahue for his opposition to the imminent Iraq War despite his high ratings. A leaked internal MSNBC memo basically confirmed that they axed Donahue because he was a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war."** Then several years later, they abruptly cancelled ''Series/CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'' – again, a highly-rated show – over an internal conflict with Keith Olbermann, who some bosses felt had gone a little too left-wing for the network.** Creator/CenkUygur of ''Radio/TheYoungTurks'' hosted his own newshour on MSNBC for a brief time, but voluntarily left after network bosses told him to avoid criticizing the Obama Administration.* ThoseTwoGuys: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf2s_lq5Xm4 Martin Bashir and Dylan Ratigan]].* TheUnpronounceable: Joe Scarborough's co-host Mika Brzezinski. At least the first name is easier, unlike her father Zbigniew...* WhatTheHellHero:** A frequent response to the firing of Keith Olbermann, who was host of their top-rated show.** Also a frequent response to the WhamLine ("We are the establishment") given to Creator/CenkUygur in July 2011.** And now more recently when they explicitly compared Mitt Romney's campaign slogan (Keep America American) to the Ku Klux Klan, although they did apologize for that one.----[[redirect:Creator/{{MSNBC}}]]

MSNBC was intended by its creators to bring a unique syncronicity between online and cable news, mostly by putting viewer emails on the air. It was a pretty novel idea... in 1996. But once the other two big networks jumped online, MSNBC's high-tech gimmick began to look redundant. The network would spend nearly a decade floundering in last place (in spite of the strength of NBC News behind it), desperately trying to ape the success that the FoxNewsChannel was having with opinion-driven pundit shows, while having ratings more comparable to those of {{CNN}} Headline News than with the [[{{CNN}} big players]] [[FoxNewsChannel of cable news]]. Meanwhile, PrimeTime was increasingly being [[NetworkDecay filled with true crime and prison "documentaries"]]. In 2005, Microsoft sold 32% of MSNBC to NBC Universal, retaining only 18% (the website, which is actually a separate unit from the TV network, remained a 50/50 partnership until 2012), and later dropping out completely, giving NBCU 100%.

to:

MSNBC was intended by its creators to bring a unique syncronicity between online and cable news, mostly by putting viewer emails on the air. It was a pretty novel idea... in 1996. But once the other two big networks jumped online, MSNBC's high-tech gimmick began to look redundant. The network would spend nearly a decade floundering in last place (in spite of the strength of NBC News behind it), desperately trying to ape the success that the FoxNewsChannel was having with opinion-driven pundit shows, while having ratings more comparable to those of {{CNN}} Creator/{{CNN}} Headline News than with the [[{{CNN}} [[Creator/{{CNN}} big players]] [[FoxNewsChannel of cable news]]. Meanwhile, PrimeTime was increasingly being [[NetworkDecay filled with true crime and prison "documentaries"]]. In 2005, Microsoft sold 32% of MSNBC to NBC Universal, retaining only 18% (the website, which is actually a separate unit from the TV network, remained a 50/50 partnership until 2012), and later dropping out completely, giving NBCU 100%.

* HeelFaceTurn[=/=]FaceHeelTurn: Depends on who you ask. Back in the day, MSNBC tried to imitate FoxNews directly by also being a conservative network, giving prime-time slots to the likes of Pat Buchanan, Tucker Carlson and Joe Scarborough. When this failed miserably (and after the repackaged-''{{Dateline}}''-in-weekday-PrimeTime era), they went in the opposite direction, finding success as the polar opposite of FoxNews, to the point where FoxNews fans began to call it the [[FunWithAcronyms Most Socialist Network on Basic Cable]].

to:

* HeelFaceTurn[=/=]FaceHeelTurn: Depends on who you ask. Back in the day, MSNBC tried to imitate FoxNews Fox News Channel directly by also being a conservative network, giving prime-time slots to the likes of Pat Buchanan, Tucker Carlson and Joe Scarborough. When this failed miserably (and after the repackaged-''{{Dateline}}''-in-weekday-PrimeTime repackaged-''Series/{{Dateline}}''-in-weekday-PrimeTime era), they went in the opposite direction, finding success as the polar opposite of FoxNews, Fox News, to the point where FoxNews fans [[http://www.redstate.com/athensrunaway/tag/msnbc/ pundits]] began to call it the [[FunWithAcronyms Most Socialist Network on Basic Cable]].

* KarmaHoudini: Whatever happened about the story of [[http://www.americanpolitics.com/20010808Klausutis.html the disappearance of Joe Scarborough's intern in 2001]], about the same time as the Gary Condit story? [[RetGone It seems that nobody even bothers mentioning it anymore.]] Not to say he's necessarily guilty unless something pops up, but isn't it strange how it wasn't even investigated for very long? Where were you, Nancy Grace?

to:

* KarmaHoudini: Whatever happened about the story of [[http://www.americanpolitics.com/20010808Klausutis.html the disappearance of Joe Scarborough's intern in 2001]], about the same time as the Gary Condit story? [[RetGone It seems that nobody even bothers mentioning it anymore.]] anymore]]. Not to say he's necessarily guilty unless something pops up, but isn't it strange how it wasn't even investigated for very long? Where were you, Nancy Grace?

** Then several years later, they abruptly cancelled ''CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'' – again, a highly-rated show – over an internal conflict with KeithOlbermann, who some bosses felt had gone a little too left-wing for the network.** Creator/CenkUygur of ''TheYoungTurks'' hosted his own newshour on MSNBC for a brief time, but voluntarily left after network bosses told him to avoid criticizing the Obama Administration.

to:

** Then several years later, they abruptly cancelled ''CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'' ''Series/CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'' – again, a highly-rated show – over an internal conflict with KeithOlbermann, Keith Olbermann, who some bosses felt had gone a little too left-wing for the network.** Creator/CenkUygur of ''TheYoungTurks'' ''Radio/TheYoungTurks'' hosted his own newshour on MSNBC for a brief time, but voluntarily left after network bosses told him to avoid criticizing the Obama Administration.

* EverythingIsRacist: At the very least, MSNBC is a bit too eager to blame opposition to Obama on racism. Watch and be amazed at how many different ways there are to say what amounts to, "conservatives don't like Obama because he's black".

American [[TwentyFourHourNewsNetworks 24-hour news network]] that was launched in 1996 as a joint venture between Creator/{{NBC}} and Microsoft. Its name was a portmanteau of MSN (Microsoft Network) and NBC. MSNBC was the revamp of a channel called "America's Talking", which went on the air in 1994 and was mostly focused on {{talk show}}s. It was, clearly, not a success, and the only show from that era to survive to the present day is ''Politics with Chris Matthews'' (now known as ''Hardball with Chris Matthews'', a name it gained after a ChannelHop to CNBC shortly after the shutdown of America's Talking).

to:

American [[TwentyFourHourNewsNetworks 24-hour news network]] that was launched in 1996 as a joint venture between Creator/{{NBC}} and Microsoft. Its name was a portmanteau of MSN (Microsoft Network) and NBC. MSNBC was the revamp of a channel called "America's Talking", which went on the air in 1994 and was mostly focused on {{talk show}}s. It was, clearly, not a success, and the only show from that era to survive to the present day is ''Politics with Chris Matthews'' (now known as ''Hardball with Chris Matthews'', a name it gained after a ChannelHop to CNBC shortly after the shutdown of America's Talking).Talking). The big impact of the cancellation of AT was that Roger Ailes ran that channel; he quickly moved to become the head of FoxNewsChannel, which naturally is MSNBC's ArchEnemy.

** CenkUygur of ''TheYoungTurks'' hosted his own newshour on MSNBC for a brief time, but voluntarily left after network bosses asked that he "tone it down" over his criticisms of the Obama Administration.

to:

** CenkUygur of ''TheYoungTurks'' hosted his own newshour on MSNBC for a brief time, but voluntarily left after network bosses asked that he "tone it down" over his criticisms of told him to avoid criticizing the Obama Administration.

** In 2003, when MSNBC was still trying to emulate the conservative Fox News and had yet to brand itself as a progressive network, it fired Phil Donahue for his opposition to the imminent Iraq War despite his high ratings. A leaked internal MSNBC basically confirmed that they axed Donahue because he was a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war."** Then several years later, they abruptly cancelled ''CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'' – again, a highly-rated show – over an internal conflict with KeithOlbermann, who some bosses felt had gone a little too left-wing for the network.

to:

** In 2003, when MSNBC was still trying to emulate the conservative Fox News and had yet to brand itself as a progressive network, it fired Phil Donahue for his opposition to the imminent Iraq War despite his high ratings. A leaked internal MSNBC memo basically confirmed that they axed Donahue because he was a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war."** Then several years later, they abruptly cancelled ''CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'' – – again, a highly-rated show – – over an internal conflict with KeithOlbermann, who some bosses felt had gone a little too left-wing for the network.

* BlatantLies: MSNBC has been repeatedly caught "creatively editing" footage to tell stories that the unedited footage completely debunks. The most infamous example is when they took footage of a black man with an (unloaded)assault rifle advocating in favor of gun rights at a Tea Party rally and meticulously edited out every hint of the man's true ethnicity. They then used the edited footage to warn the public of the dangers of angry white armed racists pervading the Tea Party.

to:

* BlatantLies: MSNBC has been repeatedly caught "creatively editing" footage to tell stories that the unedited footage completely debunks. The most infamous example is when they took footage of a black man with an (unloaded)assault (unloaded) assault rifle advocating in favor of gun rights at a Tea Party rally and meticulously edited out every hint of the man's true ethnicity. They then used the edited footage to warn the public of the dangers of angry white armed racists pervading the Tea Party.

Added DiffLines:

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: For a news channel, MSNBC is actually quite notorious for this:** In 2003, when MSNBC was still trying to emulate the conservative Fox News and had yet to brand itself as a progressive network, it fired Phil Donahue for his opposition to the imminent Iraq War despite his high ratings. A leaked internal MSNBC basically confirmed that they axed Donahue because he was a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war."** Then several years later, they abruptly cancelled ''CountdownWithKeithOlbermann'' – again, a highly-rated show – over an internal conflict with KeithOlbermann, who some bosses felt had gone a little too left-wing for the network.** CenkUygur of ''TheYoungTurks'' hosted his own newshour on MSNBC for a brief time, but voluntarily left after network bosses asked that he "tone it down" over his criticisms of the Obama Administration.

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